This past weekend, some of us fell asleep and some of us woke up to the news about the massacre in Las Vegas. Being a highly populated tourist spot, The Strip is any easy target for harm and tragedy. Of course, just because it's easy doesn't mean that it should have happened. While we believe that going to a concert is safe, the cold truth is that nowhere that we go guarantees safety, unless it is enforced.
A large problem within our country is that we have inconsistently practiced laws and punishments. In a business, no two problems that arise between employees are the same. We have taken that same mindset and applied it to our country, but it does not work that way when something is law.
Our country's gun control laws regulate buying guns, from who is purchasing it and where. While regulations vary by state, there are still Federal laws that must be followed. Background checks give us an insight of who the person is before guns are sold, but it does not lead us to know what they are doing with their new supplies.
While we ask, "Why does a person need that many guns?" it is not our business to limit their freedom to collect them. It's not our place to ask because it's not our instinct to think that someone buying a gun is trying to kill another human being with that gun.
Guns don't kill people. Knives and cars don't. It is the people who have the thought and decide to take the actions to harm another. It's the negligence, irresponsibility, or the carelessness. No one thinks that a person will walk into a hotel with rifles and plan to murder others in cold blood, but it's time for us to start thinking that way.
Women think of men in precautionary ways on a late night walk to their car. Parents think about it when they see their kids walk by a dog. We always take extra steps to avoid danger, and yes, we want to live in a world where we don't have to worry about being stabbed or shot, but we don't just live in that world. We let our feelings control what we think is right.
The world does need more security. It means more baggage regulations in hotels. It means more questions to answer when you're booking a trip.
Airport safety has improved since the days before 9/11 because TSA became a sound investment in our safety. We are still making improvements. Improvements mean more security to ensure more safety to our freedom. It means letting police officers enforce our laws and putting an end to the threats we can face every day. We need prisons to be more secure and we need a judicial system that does not give ANYONE an easy pass.
